THE KURT WEILL FELLOWSHIP
Director James Blaszko was named the 2019 Kurt Weill Fellowship recipient. With generous support from The Kurt 
Weill Foundation, Blaszko served as Assistant Director to SDC Member, Tony Award-winner, and Classic Stage Company’s (CSC) Artistic Director John Doyle on his upcoming production of Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock at CSC, opening on April 3, 2019.
This year, with an increased focus on midcareer directors, the Fellowship opportunity was open to all SDC Members and Associate Members, as well as SDCF’s 2018-2019 Observership Class. Blaszko was selected from a pool of 54 directors.
Blaszko made his directorial debut with an original adaptation of Cyclops: A Satyr Play, at American Repertory Theatre’s Oberon. Last season, Blaszko staged Puccini’s Il Trittico in South Korea, the opening ceremony of the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe, and an original dance/theatre work based on the memories of a ballerina before and after her brain hemorrhage in New York City. He has worked as a creative producer for ArtsEmerson, programming assistant at Harlem Stage, and has assisted and supported productions with Beth Morrison Projects, National Black Theatre, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Opera Omaha, Bronx Opera, Concrete Temple Theatre, The Drama League, Elevator Repair Service, City Theatre Company and Jeff Stark.
Established in 2013 by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, the Kurt Weill Fellowship offers an opportunity for emerging and mid-career directors to assist a master director on a stage work of Kurt Weill or Marc Blitzstein. Through these Fellowships, directors will gain first-hand experience with the processes and specific approaches of master artists and thereby expand their own artistry, enrich leadership and collaboration skills, and further their knowledge of directing opera and/or musical theater. In addition, the Fellow will acquire greater understanding of Kurt Weill’s and Marc Blitzstein’s theatrical catalogue and an ability to draw on this in future work.
The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc. administers, promotes, and perpetuates the legacies of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya. It encourages broad dissemination and appreciation of Weill’s music through support of performances, productions, recordings, and scholarship; it fosters understanding of Weill’s and Lenya’s lives and work within diverse cultural contexts; and, building upon the legacies of both, it nurtures talent, particularly in the creation, performance, and study of musical theater in its various manifestations and media. http://kwf.org/.
THE DENHAM FELLOWSHIP
Director Michelle Bossy was chosen as the 2018 SDCF Denham Fellow for her production of There and Back by Raul Garza. There and Back is produced by Shelter VG4 Cultural Center in association with Scriptworks in Austin, TX, and will perform at San Miguel De Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico in November 2018.
Denham Fellow Michelle Bossy is a Mexican-American theater director and filmmaker dedicated to bringing 
original, new work to the stage and screen. She directed the short films 18 (world premiere, Austin Film Festival), written by Courtney Baron; She Grinds Her Own Coffee (New York Short Film Festival), written by Cheri Magid; and The New 35, written by Leslie Korein (St. Louis International Film Festival). Recent film work includes Miracle Baby (written by Steven Fechter), Ladies Lounge (written by Caroline V. McGraw), Friendly Neighborhood Coven (written by Caroline V. McGraw), Chance of Showers (written by Alex Ellis and Julie Craig), Stag Party (written by Sami Bass) and The Crossing (written by Raul Garza). Michelle directed the web series There’s A Special Place in Hell for Fashion Bloggers and the pilot for TeleMAMAS.
Theater projects Michelle has directed include Sex with Strangers by Laura Eason, Every Good Girl Deserves Fun by Heidi Armbruster, Sex of the Baby by Matthew-Lee Erlbach, Cloven Tongues by Victor Lesniewski, Un Plugged In by Brian Pracht, South Beach Rapture by David Caudle, and Sarajevo’s Child by Katie Simon, amongst many other new plays. She directed the world premiere of Little Monsters by Maria Alexandria Beech, and created the musical High School Confidential for Primary Stages with writers Janet Reed, Dan Ahearn, Sara Wordsworth, and Russ Kaplan. Some developmental readings she has directed include The Peterson Show by Janine Nabers (CTG), Radio Boys by Joe Gilford (EST), Miller, Mississippi by Boo Killebrew, The Infinity Pond by Maria Alexandria Beech and Eat Your Heart Out by Courtney Baron (all at Perry Mansfield New Works Festival), Bicycle Girl by Rogelio Martinez (at Repertory Theater of St. Louis), Gloria by Maria Alexandria Beech (EST), Mercy by Adam Szymkowicz, and May Day by Molly Smith Metzler.
Michelle was the Associate Artistic Director of Primary Stages, where she worked for thirteen years. While there, she ran the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, where she worked with over twenty-five emerging writers on the creation of new plays. Michelle holds the first undergraduate directing degree from Webster University’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts. She teaches acting and playwriting for the Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) and directing for Syracuse University’s Tepper Semester. Michelle was a finalist for AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women, WB’s Television Workshop for Directors, and a semi-finalist for the HBO Access Program. Member: Lincoln Center Director’s Lab and SDC.
About There and Back by Raul Garza: Traveling from her native Mexico, Gloria joins her husband, Victor, on a migrant farm workers’ camp. Her arrival on the day of President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration reveals stark contrasts between the American dream and her reality. A series of visits by a liberated, contemporary Virgen de Guadalupe offers Gloria a glimpse of her life and legacy in the context of other presidential eras (Reagan and Trump), and presents a life-altering choice: stay in the United States, and accept her status as a member of the underclass, or abandon the agreed-upon plan and her future family to claim dignity and fulfillment.
About the Fellowship: Established by Mary Orr Denham in 2006 with a bequest to SDC Foundation in honor of her late husband, Reginald H. F. Denham, the Denham Fellowship is an annual award to women directors to further develop their directing skills. Past recipients include May Adrales, Tea Alagic, Rachel Alderman, Kathleen Amshoff, Jessi D. Hill, Joanie Schultz, Bridget Leak, Hannah Ryan, Diane Rodriguez, and Shirley Jo Finney.
THE SIR JOHN GIELGUD FELLOWSHIP
Director Katie Lupica is SDCF’s 2018/2019 Gielgud Fellow on Roger Danforth’s The Odyssey at Artpark Stages, Lewiston NY, July 9 – August 5, 2018.
Katie Lupica is a director most passionate about regional theater and regional audiences. She likes directing plays, old and new, that bring communities together, ask difficult questions in new ways, and invigorate the human spirit. Katie grew up in Phoenix, AZ, and is currently based in Cleveland, OH, by way of New York City. She is the 17-18 Artistic Directing Fellow at Cleveland Play House and a 2016 Drama League Directing Fellow.
Recent projects include Good Kids by Naomi Iizuka at SUNY Brockport (Geva Directing Fellow); Oh Oh You Will Be Sorry by Claire Kiechel and The Velveteen Rabbit (adapt. James Still) at the Hangar Theatre (Ithaca, NY); Diary of Lights by Adrienne Kennedy with The Drama League (workshop, First Stage Residency); Chemistry by Jacob Marx Rice (Cincinnati Fringe, Producer’s Pick of the Fringe) and Pains of Youth by Ferdinand Bruckner (trans. Martin Crimp) with her theater company, The Cake Shop; Lysistrata (adapt. Catherine Weingarten) with Stone on a Walk Cincinnati; short plays by Julia Jordan, Bekah Brunstetter, and Josh Koenigsberg at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Portrait and a Dream by Jacob Marx Rice at the New York Int’l Fringe Festival; and The Saint Plays by Erik Ehn at Barnard College. She has also directed short plays, workshops, and readings with Cleveland Play House, Know Theatre of Cincinnati, The Gallery Players, Ugly Rhino, The Cake Shop, Columbia University, NYU, and Powerhouse/NY Stage & FIlm.
Katie’s NYC assistant directing includes Smokefall (dir. Anne Kauffman) at MCC and Stupid Fu**ing Bird (dir. Davis McCallum) at The Pearl. Regional assisting includes The Odyssey (dir. Roger Danforth, SDCF Gielgud Fellow) at Artpark in greater Buffalo, NY; and Shakespeare in Love (dir. Laura Kepley) and Macbeth (dir. Taibi Magar) at Cleveland Play House. Katie also spent a season as Directing Fellow at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, where she assisted directors KJ Sanchez, Timothy Douglas, Blake Robison, Michael Haney, and Wendy C. Goldberg. Other assisting includes the Broadway revival of Godspell (dir. Daniel Goldstein, SDCF Observer) and Williamstown’s Pygmalion (dir. Nicholas Martin).
Katie is Co-Artistic Director of The Cake Shop Theater Company, dedicated the development of innovative projects and the artists who create them, leading occasionally to full productions. She has worked in artistic and literary management with Samuel French Inc, The Off Off Broadway Festival, and Signature Theater Company. She is a phi beta kappa, summa cum laude graduate of Columbia University, where she studied theatre and history. She is an Associate Member of SDC.
THE OCKRENT FELLOWSHIP
Director/Choreographer Ilana Ransom Toeplitz was choosen as the 2018-2019 Mike Ockrent Fellow on Casey Nicholaw’s The Prom. Ms. Toeplitz’s fellowship lasted the entire length of the production process, with pre-production and rehearsals on The Prom in performance at The Longacre Theater on Broadway. Ms. Toeplitz will receive a $5000 award.
Ilana Ransom Toeplitz is a New York-based director/choreographer specializing in musicals, new work and comedy. Ilana has developed and directed the premieres of new work with Lincoln Center, Keen Company, York Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Group, New York Theatre Barn, the New York Musical Theatre Festival, Feinstein’s/54 Below, Times Square Theatre, and the Museum of Sex. Ilana’s favorite director/choreographer credits include: Chicago, Reefer Madness (featuring Alan Cumming), The Drowsy Chaperone, Singin’ In The Rain, Mary Poppins & Seussical! and the tours of Click, Clack, Moo! and A Christmas Carol (TheatreWorksUSA).
On Broadway, Ilana assistant directed Violet (Tony Nominated, 2014 Roundabout Theatre Company, directed by Leigh Silverman, starring Sutton Foster) and was the 2018 SDCF Mike Ockrent Fellow with Tony Award-Winner Casey Nicholaw on The Prom. Ilana was the Associate Director for the national tours of A Christmas Story: The Musical! (2014 First National), Dirty Dancing: the Classic Story on Stage (2017-2018 National Tour) as well as the 2018 premiere of Sondheim on Sondheim with the Boston Pops (2017 Boston Symphony Hall & Tanglewood).
Ilana holds assistant or associate credits with Leigh Silverman, Susan Stroman, Baayork Lee, Casey Nicholaw, Sarna Lapine, New York City Center, Signature Theatre (VA), Second Stage Theatre (NYC), Huntington Theatre, Pittsburgh CLO and on the Peabody Award-winning Podcast, “….Mars Patel”. Ilana is a proud Pittsburgh native and a Directors Project Alum (2016 Leo Shull New Musicals Directing Fellowship). You can follow Ilana on Twitter and Instagram: @IlanaRanToe. www.IlanaDirects.com
About The Ockrent Fellowship: Mike Ockrent was a British stage director whose London productions were Once a Catholic, Educating Rita, Passion Play, Follies and Zenobia for the RSC. Ockrent also directed several productions of Me and My Girl, which earned him Olivier, Ivor Novello and Drama Magazine awards. On Broadway, Ockrent’s Me and My Girl was nominated for 13 Tonys and earned him the Drama Desk Award for Best Director. In 1992, Ockrent worked with Susan Stroman on Crazy for You. They were married in 1996 and remained so until Ockrent’s death from leukemia in New York in 1999.
Modeled on SDCF’s prestigious Sir John Gielgud Fellowship in Classical Theatre, the goal of the Mike Ockrent Fellowship is to help early-career directors of promise develop their skills by working with a master director on the creation of a big-budget musical or play. The Fellowship, established in 2001, offers up-and-coming artists a remarkable education in creating theatre on a Broadway scale.
Previous recipients of the Ockrent Fellowship are Cassey Kivnick on Jerry Mitchell’s Gotta Dance, Paula D’Alessandris on Sean Mathias’s No Man’s Land/Waiting for Godot, Alex Lippard on Jeff Calhoun’s Bonnie and Clyde, Tomé Cousin on George C. Wolfe’s A Free Man of Color, Gregg Wiggans on Rob Ashford’s Promises, Promises, Elissa Weinzimmer on Casey Nicholaw’s Minsky’s, Jillian Loyas on Bob Avian’s A Chorus Line, and Benjamin Kline on Scott Elliott‘s Barefoot in the Park.